The following are links to reports from MEMRI's Special Dispatch Series and Inquiry and Analysis Series, as well as to transcripts from the MEMRI TV Project, released during the past week.
MEMRI Reports
Special Dispatch No. 7464 – Reports In Arab Media On Iranian Bases ...

During a Friday sermon at the Islamic Center of South Florida (ICOSF) in Pompano Beach, Florida, Imam Hasan Sabri said that the establishment of Israel was a "sad comedy" carried out by the superpowers of the time "because they wanted the Muslims themselves to be humiliated." Acc...

On April 28, 2018, the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi daily published an article listing bases of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and of the Iran-backed Shi'ite militias on Syrian soil. According to the daily, the information was sourced from secret reports prepar...

On May 8, U.S. President Donald Trump delivered a speech in which he announced Washington's withdrawal from the JCPOA.[1] Russia's MFA criticized the move, stating that the United States is once again acting in defiance of majority international opinion. Russia's MFA also stresse...

U.S. President Donald Trump's May 8, 2018 announcement of the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA) and its reinstatement of the harsh sanctions against Iran won broad support from Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries. Saudi Arabia officially stated that it welcomed...

U.S. President Donald Trump's May 8, 2018 speech turned the tables on Iran, on the European parties to the JCPOA and on the supporters of the deal around the world. Trump reiterated the basic truths about the Iranian regime, which the Obama administration had swept aside in its e...

Introduction
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran nuclear deal, could not be achieved until Iran was cleared of suspicions that it had worked on developing nuclear weapons. This was because earlier, in 2011, the International Atomic Energy Ag...

On May 2, 2018, the seventh anniversary of the killing of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, a Telegram channel named for Hamas's military wing, "The Martyr 'Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades," published several messages about the late Al-Qaeda leader. Along with these messages, the ch...

On May 7, 2018, Vladimir Putin was sworn in for his fourth term in office as Russia's president. Two days prior to the inauguration, mass protest demonstrations took place throughout Russia under the slogan: "He's not our Tsar". Protesters were attacked and 1,600 protesters, incl...

On December 9, 2017 Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-'Abadi declared victory over the Islamic State (ISIS), saying: "[Iraq's] armed forces have secured the entire length of the Iraq-Syria border, and we therefore declare the end of the war on ISIS... Our war was against an enemy th...

In a four-installment interview with Russia Today TV, former Russian ambassador to Qatar Vladimir Titorenko talked about the deterioration in Russian-Qatari relations with the onset of the Arab Spring in 2011 and about Qatar's role in fanning the flames of the revolutions. He rec...

On May 6, unauthorized anti-Putin rallies were organized across 19 Russian cities by opposition leader Alexey Navalny. The demonstrations' slogan was: "He's not our Tsar" and were timed to take place two days before Russian President Vladimir Putin's May 7 inauguration and the st...

Ever since suspicions arose in 2002 that Iran has a military nuclear program – when the Mujahideen Khalq organization exposed that Iran was secretly enriching uranium without the consent or knowledge of the IAEA – the Iranian regime leaders, from both the ideological camp an...

The following report is now a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
In Issue 130 of Al-Naba', the weekly newspaper of the Islamic State (ISIS), the group claimed that its soldiers had k...

Russia This Week is a weekly review by the MEMRI Russian Media Studies Project, covering the latest Russia-related news and analysis from media in Russia, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe.
Putin Says
(Source: Kremlin.ru)
Putin: 'We Do Not Have The Rig...

The following are some of this week's reports from the MEMRI Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM) Project, which translates and analyzes content from sources monitored around the clock, among them the most important jihadi websites and blogs. (To view these reports in full, ...

The Palestinian ship of state sinks beneath the sea (Source: Alghad.com, May 2, 2018)
These days, the Palestinian national movement is descending, before our very eyes, into an internecine struggle over the right to represent the Palestinians – a struggle that is bereft of a...

In his April 21, 2018 column in the Lebanese daily Al-Nahar, titled "Hizbullah Resettling in Syria," Ahmad 'Ayyash referred to the policy of transfer and forced demographic change that the Bashar Al-Assad regime has been conducting in Syria over the past several years, with the a...

The following are MEMRI TV clips of the Gaza "Return March" cover rallies, Friday sermons, reports of children's participation, and statements by activists, scholars, and others. Participants are seen chanting antisemitic slogans, calling for jihad and martyrdom, and inciting vio...

According to reports in Western media, Britain, France, and Germany are agreeing with U.S. President Donald Trump that Iran's ballistic missile program and Iran's expansion in the region constitute a threat for the region and its security and stability.[1]
To date, Iran has fi...

The following report is now a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
On April 27, 2018, Europol announced that on April 25, law enforcement agencies from a number of European Union member st...

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said that the massacres to which European Jews were subjected, from the 11th century until the Holocaust, were not because they were Jews, but because of their function in society. "The anti-Jewish [sentiment] was not because of their...

In the past two months there have been increasing threats against the U.S. forces in Syria, emanating from the Syrian regime, its writers, and its supporters.[1] These threats escalated even further following the conflicting announcements made recently by the U.S. administration ...

On April 21, 2018, Palestinian engineer Dr. Fadi Al-Batsh was killed in a drive-by motorcycle shooting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The London daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat wrote that he was an outstanding researcher, expert in electrical engineering and rocket manufacture. It added that...

Since June 2017, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE, and Bahrain have maintained a comprehensive boycott of Qatar, claiming that it supports and finances global terrorism.[1]Qatar, for its part, rejects these claims, and its senior officials constantly reiterate that they oppose terror...

Russian political analyst Aleksandr Goltz wrote an article, titled "Ideology For New Confrontation," published by the independent Russian media outlet The New Times. In the article, Goltz asserts that during the Moscow Security Conference (April 4-5), a rationale for Cold War 2.0...

Russia This Week is a weekly review by the MEMRI Russian Media Studies Project, covering the latest Russia-related news and analysis from media in Russia, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe.
Photo Of The Week
Demonstrations in Armenia (Source: Facebook.com...

The following are some of this week's reports from the MEMRI Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM) Project, which translates and analyzes content from sources monitored around the clock, among them the most important jihadi websites and blogs. (To view these reports in full, ...

In a Friday sermon at the Islamic Center of South Florida (ICOSF) in Pompano Beach, Florida, Imam Hasan Sabri said that the roots of atheism lie in the colonial powers and the enemies of Allah, who "have an agenda of destroying this Islamic nation." He continued, "They want to ke...

In a Friday sermon delivered at the Dar Al-Hijrah Mosque in Chicago, Illinois, Dr. Ashraf Nusairat said that the notion that women do not have rights in Islam was introduced into Islamic countries by Western colonialism. According to Dr. Nusairat, the issue of women's freedom, eq...

As the MEMRI 2018 Spring Campaign draws to a close, we are depending upon you to help make it a success. If you have already donated, please accept our profound gratitude. If you donated by check, it can take a few weeks for it to be received and processed. If you hav...

In recent months, several Arab writers have published articles in the Arab press discussing why Israel is superior to the weaker Arab states. The reasons, they said, lie in Israel's strong and effective judicial system that tackles corruption in the country, even investigating an...

On March 2, 2018, Salman Masalha, an Israeli-Arab intellectual of Druze origin,[1]published an article in the Dubai-based Al-Hayat daily that harshly criticized the Arab leaders' response to the civil war raging in Syria, which is currently in its eighth year. Masalha claims that...

In his February 25, 2018 column in the Jordanian daily Al-Ghad, 'Alaa Al-Din Abu Zeina wrote about Egyptian star footballer Muhammad (Mo) Salah, who has been playing for Liverpool since June 2017. Abu Zeina noted that Salah has managed to cause even racist British soccer fa...

In recent days, German media[1] have reported that the SPD and the CDU are discussing the possibility of offering Russia a deal on Syria, indirectly addressing Iran, which is the hardest nut to crack in the Syria crisis, even more so than President Bashar Al-Assad. MEMRI research...

Hasan Öztürk the editorial writer for the ruling AKP's mouthpiece Yeni Safak wrote an article, titled "We Are Neither Pro-Russia, Nor Pro-NATO; We Are Turkish, Thank God," discussing Ankara's relations with the West and with Russia.
The Turkish editorialist opined that punishi...

Saudi-Palestinian relations have been extremely strained recently, due, inter alia, to reports of active Saudi involvement in formulating and promoting U.S. President Donald Trump's "Deal of the Century," and apparently also due to increasing media reports that Saudi-Israeli rela...

The head of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Sergei Naryshkin spoke at the VII Moscow Conference on International Security that was held on April 4-5.
In his speech, Naryshkin described Russia-West relations pessimistically, stating that the U.S. and some European c...

French women's rights activist Henda Ayari, a Salafi-turned-liberal Muslim, accused Swiss Muslim thinker Tariq Ramadan of raping her at a Paris hotel in 2012. In an interview on the Egyptian Dream TV channel on April 7, Ayari, who has founded an NGO to help, among others, women s...

Russia This Week is a weekly review by the MEMRI Russian Media Studies Project, covering the latest Russia-related news and analysis from media in Russia, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe.
Quotes Of The Week
Commenting on an Instagram post from Damascus by...

The following are some of this week's reports from the MEMRI Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM) Project, which translates and analyzes content from sources monitored around the clock, among them the most important jihadi websites and blogs. (To view these reports in full, ...

After the U.S.-U.K.-France strike on Syria, the Russian MFA Spokesperson accused Washington of collaborating with the extremist groups in Syria, Russian MP Aleksandr Sherin went as far as to compare U.S. President Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler.
Below are official reactions by R...

In a January 12, 2018 article in the English-language daily Saudi Gazette, columnist Nefeen Abbas rebukes women who oppose their husband taking a second wife. Men, she says, unlike women, get bored with the monotony of married life, and if not allowed to take another wife they ar...

Saudi scholar Sheikh Saad ibn Abdullah Al-Humayd, said that although we have no proof of the authenticity of "The Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion," the films produced by Hollywood and "the feverish competition meant to preoccupy people with the arts, with sports, with theater, an...

In his March 18, 2018 column in the London-based Saudi Al-Sharq Al-Awsat daily, journalist Hussein Shubakshi wrote about the situation of the Jews who had lived in the Arab countries. He noted that they suffered discrimination and prejudice, despite the fact that they were "pilla...

In light of Israel's recent military operations against Iran's military expansion in Syria, comprising strikes against strategic Iranian and Syrian targets such as Iran-controlled airfields, missile bases, and drone bases, Iran now faces a strategic question: whether to respond t...

On April 14, 2018, about a week after the regime of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad carried out a chemical attack on the town of Douma near Damascus that killed dozens, the U.S., U.K. and France launched a joint military strike on regime bases and facilities associated with its ...

The majority of pro-Kremlin opinion makers view the strike as merely a symbolic one that demonstrated that Washington is a paper tiger, intimidated by Russia. In contrast, independent editorialists believe that while the strike was limited, military tension between Washington and...

In his January 17, 2018 column in the Al-Ghad daily, headed "How Are Trump and Netanyahu Any Different from Hitler?" Jihad Al-Mansi claimed that "the behavior of [U.S. President] Trump and [Israel Prime Minister] Netanyahu is much worse than anything done by Hitler." He writ...

Yeni Safak, the mouthpiece for Turkey's ruling Adalet ve Kalkimna Partisi (Justice and Development Party) criticized AKP's own leader, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for his policies in Syria and his government's support for the U.S.-Great Britain- France airstrike in Sy...

The following are some of this week's reports from the MEMRI Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM) Project, which translates and analyzes content from sources monitored around the clock, among them the most important jihadi websites and blogs. (To view these reports in full, ...

Following the chemical attack in the Syrian town of Douma, Egyptian TV host Amr Adeeb gave an address in which he said that as Arabs, "we need to take a hard look at ourselves." "We have brought shame upon the world, shame upon humanity, by what we are doing by ourselves and to o...

In recent weeks, there have been indications of a possible shift in Saudi Arabia's policy vis-à-vis Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and recognition of his regime. These indications have prompted various predictions regarding the possibility of normalization of Saudi-Syrian relat...

We would like to take this opportunity to follow up with you regarding our Spring fundraising campaign and to seek your personal participation. This is our third – and final – request this Spring. Please take this opportunity to support MEMRI today and accept our most sincere gra...

After the French president joined his American and British counterparts in warning that they would respond to the Syrian regime's chemical attack in Douma, Ibrahim Al-Amin, editor-in-chief of the pro-Hizbullah daily Al-Akhbar, penned a scathing article against France. Al-Amin acc...

U.S. President Donald Trump's statement that the Syrian regime will pay a "big price" for its April 7, 2018 chemical attack on Douma, which left dozens dead, as well as the American, British and French preparations for a military strike in Syria, sparked an intense debate in Saud...

While the world awaits U.S. punitive action in Syria following charges that Assad's forces used poison gas in an attack on the city of Douma on April 7, 2018, Professor Ivan Timofeev, in an April 11, 2018 article, constructs a hypothetical escalation ladder that could start ...

On January 22, 2018, a few days before International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Dr. Mohammad Al-'Issa, secretary-general of the Saudi-based Muslim World League (MWL), sent a letter to Sara Bloomfield, director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C., in which he ...

The following report is now a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
El Shafee Elsheikh, a member of the British ISIS cell known as the "Beatles," which became notorious for its beh...

In advance of Iran's National Nuclear Technology Day, on April 9, this document focuses on a number of steps taken by the Iranian regime to maintain and further develop Iran's nuclear capabilities – steps that deviate from the framework of the JCPOA nuclear deal, and that in some...

Hamas is continuing to encourage Gazans to participate in the Great Return March.[1] On April 5, 2018, ahead of the second Friday of the protests, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem revealed that the movement is granting financial aid to the families of Gazans killed or wounded in...

Political scientist and American affairs expert Vladimir Mozhegov authored this article for the online Russian newspaper Vzglyad. The article is essentially an appeal to Putin to bring Russia's economic system in line with Russia's persistent conservative or Christian socia...

The following are some of this week's reports from the MEMRI Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM) Project, which translates and analyzes content from sources monitored around the clock, among them the most important jihadi websites and blogs. (To view these reports in full, ...

Following a debate on the Egyptian Alhadath Alyoum TV channel in which the moderator had kicked one of his guests, an atheist, out of the studio, the channel held a follow-up discussion. TV host Mahmoud Abd Al-Halim asked why the Western media was so interested in the atheists an...

On April 3, 2018, Houthi rebels in Yemen fired a missile at, and struck, a Saudi oil tanker in international waters west of the Yemeni port city of Al-Hudaydah. In its report on the incident, the pro-"resistance" Lebanon-based Al-Mayadeen TV called the attack vengeance for Saudi ...

Twenty-four hours per day, seven days per week, 365 days per year, MEMRI supports the hard work of Western governments, militaries, intelligence, and law enforcement agencies to fight terrorism and promote reform in the Middle East. But to sustain this work, we need YOUR help.
...

On December 11, 2017, Iranian media and media affiliated with the resistance axis reported that Gen. Qassem Soleimani, commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps' Qods (Jerusalem) Force, had spoken on the phone with commanders of the military wings of both Hamas and P...

In late February, 2018, in a ceremony sponsored by Lebanon's Youth and Sports Minister, Hizbullah launched a 3D computer game for children and teens called "Holy Defense – Protecting the Homeland and the Holy Places," which simulates the organization's fighting in Syria. Accordin...

The editor-in-chief of the independent media outlet Ej.ru, Aleksandr Ryklin, wrote an article, titled "There Are Only Two Strategies Of Behavior: To Emigrate Or To Resist," stating that the recent elections clarified that Russian President Vladimir Putin will never relinquish pow...

The following are MEMRI TV clips of the Gaza "Return March" cover rallies, Friday sermons, reports of children's participation, and statements by activists, scholars, and others. Participants are seen chanting antisemitic slogans, calling for jihad and martyrdom, and inciting vio...

The following report is now a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
On April 27, 2018, Europol announced that on April 25, law enforcement agencies from a number of European Union member st...

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said that the massacres to which European Jews were subjected, from the 11th century until the Holocaust, were not because they were Jews, but because of their function in society. "The anti-Jewish [sentiment] was not because of their...

In the past two months there have been increasing threats against the U.S. forces in Syria, emanating from the Syrian regime, its writers, and its supporters.[1] These threats escalated even further following the conflicting announcements made recently by the U.S. administration ...

On April 21, 2018, Palestinian engineer Dr. Fadi Al-Batsh was killed in a drive-by motorcycle shooting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The London daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat wrote that he was an outstanding researcher, expert in electrical engineering and rocket manufacture. It added that...

Since June 2017, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE, and Bahrain have maintained a comprehensive boycott of Qatar, claiming that it supports and finances global terrorism.[1]Qatar, for its part, rejects these claims, and its senior officials constantly reiterate that they oppose terror...

Russian political analyst Aleksandr Goltz wrote an article, titled "Ideology For New Confrontation," published by the independent Russian media outlet The New Times. In the article, Goltz asserts that during the Moscow Security Conference (April 4-5), a rationale for Cold War 2.0...

Russia This Week is a weekly review by the MEMRI Russian Media Studies Project, covering the latest Russia-related news and analysis from media in Russia, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe.
Photo Of The Week
Demonstrations in Armenia (Source: Facebook.com...

The following are some of this week's reports from the MEMRI Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM) Project, which translates and analyzes content from sources monitored around the clock, among them the most important jihadi websites and blogs. (To view these reports in full, ...

In a Friday sermon at the Islamic Center of South Florida (ICOSF) in Pompano Beach, Florida, Imam Hasan Sabri said that the roots of atheism lie in the colonial powers and the enemies of Allah, who "have an agenda of destroying this Islamic nation." He continued, "They want to ke...

In a Friday sermon delivered at the Dar Al-Hijrah Mosque in Chicago, Illinois, Dr. Ashraf Nusairat said that the notion that women do not have rights in Islam was introduced into Islamic countries by Western colonialism. According to Dr. Nusairat, the issue of women's freedom, eq...

As the MEMRI 2018 Spring Campaign draws to a close, we are depending upon you to help make it a success. If you have already donated, please accept our profound gratitude. If you donated by check, it can take a few weeks for it to be received and processed. If you hav...

In recent months, several Arab writers have published articles in the Arab press discussing why Israel is superior to the weaker Arab states. The reasons, they said, lie in Israel's strong and effective judicial system that tackles corruption in the country, even investigating an...

On March 2, 2018, Salman Masalha, an Israeli-Arab intellectual of Druze origin,[1]published an article in the Dubai-based Al-Hayat daily that harshly criticized the Arab leaders' response to the civil war raging in Syria, which is currently in its eighth year. Masalha claims that...

In his February 25, 2018 column in the Jordanian daily Al-Ghad, 'Alaa Al-Din Abu Zeina wrote about Egyptian star footballer Muhammad (Mo) Salah, who has been playing for Liverpool since June 2017. Abu Zeina noted that Salah has managed to cause even racist British soccer fa...

In recent days, German media[1] have reported that the SPD and the CDU are discussing the possibility of offering Russia a deal on Syria, indirectly addressing Iran, which is the hardest nut to crack in the Syria crisis, even more so than President Bashar Al-Assad. MEMRI research...

Hasan Öztürk the editorial writer for the ruling AKP's mouthpiece Yeni Safak wrote an article, titled "We Are Neither Pro-Russia, Nor Pro-NATO; We Are Turkish, Thank God," discussing Ankara's relations with the West and with Russia.
The Turkish editorialist opined that punishi...

Saudi-Palestinian relations have been extremely strained recently, due, inter alia, to reports of active Saudi involvement in formulating and promoting U.S. President Donald Trump's "Deal of the Century," and apparently also due to increasing media reports that Saudi-Israeli rela...

The head of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Sergei Naryshkin spoke at the VII Moscow Conference on International Security that was held on April 4-5.
In his speech, Naryshkin described Russia-West relations pessimistically, stating that the U.S. and some European c...

French women's rights activist Henda Ayari, a Salafi-turned-liberal Muslim, accused Swiss Muslim thinker Tariq Ramadan of raping her at a Paris hotel in 2012. In an interview on the Egyptian Dream TV channel on April 7, Ayari, who has founded an NGO to help, among others, women s...

Russia This Week is a weekly review by the MEMRI Russian Media Studies Project, covering the latest Russia-related news and analysis from media in Russia, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe.
Quotes Of The Week
Commenting on an Instagram post from Damascus by...

The following are some of this week's reports from the MEMRI Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM) Project, which translates and analyzes content from sources monitored around the clock, among them the most important jihadi websites and blogs. (To view these reports in full, ...

After the U.S.-U.K.-France strike on Syria, the Russian MFA Spokesperson accused Washington of collaborating with the extremist groups in Syria, Russian MP Aleksandr Sherin went as far as to compare U.S. President Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler.
Below are official reactions by R...

In a January 12, 2018 article in the English-language daily Saudi Gazette, columnist Nefeen Abbas rebukes women who oppose their husband taking a second wife. Men, she says, unlike women, get bored with the monotony of married life, and if not allowed to take another wife they ar...

Saudi scholar Sheikh Saad ibn Abdullah Al-Humayd, said that although we have no proof of the authenticity of "The Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion," the films produced by Hollywood and "the feverish competition meant to preoccupy people with the arts, with sports, with theater, an...

In his March 18, 2018 column in the London-based Saudi Al-Sharq Al-Awsat daily, journalist Hussein Shubakshi wrote about the situation of the Jews who had lived in the Arab countries. He noted that they suffered discrimination and prejudice, despite the fact that they were "pilla...

On April 14, 2018, about a week after the regime of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad carried out a chemical attack on the town of Douma near Damascus that killed dozens, the U.S., U.K. and France launched a joint military strike on regime bases and facilities associated with its ...

The majority of pro-Kremlin opinion makers view the strike as merely a symbolic one that demonstrated that Washington is a paper tiger, intimidated by Russia. In contrast, independent editorialists believe that while the strike was limited, military tension between Washington and...

In his January 17, 2018 column in the Al-Ghad daily, headed "How Are Trump and Netanyahu Any Different from Hitler?" Jihad Al-Mansi claimed that "the behavior of [U.S. President] Trump and [Israel Prime Minister] Netanyahu is much worse than anything done by Hitler." He writ...

Yeni Safak, the mouthpiece for Turkey's ruling Adalet ve Kalkimna Partisi (Justice and Development Party) criticized AKP's own leader, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for his policies in Syria and his government's support for the U.S.-Great Britain- France airstrike in Sy...

The following are some of this week's reports from the MEMRI Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM) Project, which translates and analyzes content from sources monitored around the clock, among them the most important jihadi websites and blogs. (To view these reports in full, ...

Following the chemical attack in the Syrian town of Douma, Egyptian TV host Amr Adeeb gave an address in which he said that as Arabs, "we need to take a hard look at ourselves." "We have brought shame upon the world, shame upon humanity, by what we are doing by ourselves and to o...

We would like to take this opportunity to follow up with you regarding our Spring fundraising campaign and to seek your personal participation. This is our third – and final – request this Spring. Please take this opportunity to support MEMRI today and accept our most sincere gra...

After the French president joined his American and British counterparts in warning that they would respond to the Syrian regime's chemical attack in Douma, Ibrahim Al-Amin, editor-in-chief of the pro-Hizbullah daily Al-Akhbar, penned a scathing article against France. Al-Amin acc...

U.S. President Donald Trump's statement that the Syrian regime will pay a "big price" for its April 7, 2018 chemical attack on Douma, which left dozens dead, as well as the American, British and French preparations for a military strike in Syria, sparked an intense debate in Saud...

While the world awaits U.S. punitive action in Syria following charges that Assad's forces used poison gas in an attack on the city of Douma on April 7, 2018, Professor Ivan Timofeev, in an April 11, 2018 article, constructs a hypothetical escalation ladder that could start ...

On January 22, 2018, a few days before International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Dr. Mohammad Al-'Issa, secretary-general of the Saudi-based Muslim World League (MWL), sent a letter to Sara Bloomfield, director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C., in which he ...

The following report is now a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
El Shafee Elsheikh, a member of the British ISIS cell known as the "Beatles," which became notorious for its beh...

Hamas is continuing to encourage Gazans to participate in the Great Return March.[1] On April 5, 2018, ahead of the second Friday of the protests, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem revealed that the movement is granting financial aid to the families of Gazans killed or wounded in...

Political scientist and American affairs expert Vladimir Mozhegov authored this article for the online Russian newspaper Vzglyad. The article is essentially an appeal to Putin to bring Russia's economic system in line with Russia's persistent conservative or Christian socia...

The following are some of this week's reports from the MEMRI Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM) Project, which translates and analyzes content from sources monitored around the clock, among them the most important jihadi websites and blogs. (To view these reports in full, ...

Following a debate on the Egyptian Alhadath Alyoum TV channel in which the moderator had kicked one of his guests, an atheist, out of the studio, the channel held a follow-up discussion. TV host Mahmoud Abd Al-Halim asked why the Western media was so interested in the atheists an...

On April 3, 2018, Houthi rebels in Yemen fired a missile at, and struck, a Saudi oil tanker in international waters west of the Yemeni port city of Al-Hudaydah. In its report on the incident, the pro-"resistance" Lebanon-based Al-Mayadeen TV called the attack vengeance for Saudi ...

Twenty-four hours per day, seven days per week, 365 days per year, MEMRI supports the hard work of Western governments, militaries, intelligence, and law enforcement agencies to fight terrorism and promote reform in the Middle East. But to sustain this work, we need YOUR help.
...

In late February, 2018, in a ceremony sponsored by Lebanon's Youth and Sports Minister, Hizbullah launched a 3D computer game for children and teens called "Holy Defense – Protecting the Homeland and the Holy Places," which simulates the organization's fighting in Syria. Accordin...

The editor-in-chief of the independent media outlet Ej.ru, Aleksandr Ryklin, wrote an article, titled "There Are Only Two Strategies Of Behavior: To Emigrate Or To Resist," stating that the recent elections clarified that Russian President Vladimir Putin will never relinquish pow...

In a recent column in the English-language Saudi daily Arab News, Christian Palestinian-American columnist Ray Hanania laments that Christian Arabs receive more support from Israel than from their fellow Arabs. As an example he presents Palestinian-Christian filmmaker Shady Srour...

After the results of the February 16, 2018 elections for the Engineers Union in the Jordanian city of Al-Zarqa were announced – i.e. that the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated White List was the winner – some of the White List supporters cheered and chanted slogans equating the city ...

In the wake of the widespread December 2017 and January 2018 social and political protests against the regime in Iran, in which the women's protest against the mandatory Islamic dress code – the hijab – was conspicuous, senior regime ayatollahs have stressed the crucial importanc...

In an article in the Russian daily Kommersant, Russian intellectual Fyodor Lukyanov states that there is one main idea that unites former President Barack Obama and President Donald Trump: Russia is non-essential for the U.S. According to Lukyanov, both Obama and Trump wanted to ...

Russia This Week is a weekly review by the MEMRI Russian Media Studies Project, covering the latest Russia-related news and analysis from media in Russia, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe.
Cartoon Of The Week
A blood-soaked Union Jack (Source: Vk.com...

In a March 31, 2018 article in the Kuwaiti government daily Al-Watan, columnist 'Abdallah Al-Hadlaq harshly criticized the Hamas-led "Great Return March" initiative, stating that protests of this sort lead to chaos and are not accepted in Islam. Calling Hamas "terrorist" and "all...

The following are some of this week's reports from the MEMRI Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM) Project, which translates and analyzes content from sources monitored around the clock, among them the most important jihadi websites and blogs. (To view these reports in full, ...

On December 21, 2017, it was reported that a census of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon had counted 174,422 refugees in the country. The census, called " General Census of Refugee Camp Residents And Palestinian Population Centers In Lebanon" and conducted over the course of about ...

Egyptian historian Bassam El Shammaa, interviewed by the official Palestinian Authority TV channel, repeated his claims of a post-WWII "counter Holocaust" carried out by Jews against the Germans, in which "60,000 to 80,000 Germans were killed... and 2-3 million Germans were perse...

In the wake of the March 13, 2018 attempt to assassinate Palestinian Authority (PA) Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah and PA General Intelligence chief Majed Faraj, there is severe tension between Fatah and Hamas. In a March 19 meeting of the Palestinian leadership, Palestinian Presi...

Moscow delivered on its warning that it would take retaliatory measures against the mass expulsion of Russian diplomats by 18 European Union states as well as by the United States and Canada. On March 26, the State Department announced the expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats from i...

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In a Friday sermon delivered at the Masjid Al Furqaan in Cape Town, South Africa, Sheikh Riyaad Fataar said that the Al-Aqsa Mosque was "slipping from the hands of the Islamic nation... because the plans of the Jews are moving [ahead]." Quoting Saladin and saying that Muslims "ar...

In the wake of the widespread December 2017 and January 2018 popular protests against the Iranian regime and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the regime stepped up its social and political oppression of the citizens and of its political opponents. This report, the first in a series, ...

As U.S. forces settle in east of the Euphrates River in eastern Syria, with the aid of the primarily Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Syrian regime is issuing harsh warnings about the American presence in the country. Regime officials and regime-affiliated media are de...

In its March 18, 2018 editorial, the Saudi government daily Al-Riyadh wrote that, in light of the atrocities perpetrated by the Syrian regime against its people, as currently exemplified by the massacre in eastern Ghouta, and given the helplessness of the international community ...

On March 25, 2018, when UN Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths was visiting Yemen and two days before Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres were set to meet in New York, Houthi forces in Yemen fired seven ballistic missiles at Saudi...

The following is an op-ed by MEMRI Executive Director Steven Stalinsky that was originally published in The Hill on March 8, 2018.[1]
As the value of Bitcoin has reached new highs, there has been a major increase in attention to it, including news articles and TV s...

Russia This Week is a weekly review by the MEMRI Russian Media Studies Project, covering the latest Russia-related news and analysis from media in Russia, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe.
Cartoon Of The Week
(Source: Ria.ru)
Interview Of The Week...

The controversial Russian philosopher Alenksander Dugin, whose views are reportedly influential in Russian official circles, wrote an article, titled "Russians On The Verge Of Losing Their Identity," where he argued that while Russia's sovereignty is on the rise, Russian identity...

The following are some of this week's reports from the MEMRI Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM) Project, which translates and analyzes content from sources monitored around the clock, among them the most important jihadi websites and blogs. (To view these reports in full, ...

In a Friday sermon delivered on July 18, 2014, at the Islamic Education Center of Houston, Texas, Pakistani-born Shiite Imam Ghulam Hurr Shabbiri said that "one of the worst Hitlers in this world is Netanyahu" and that Israel was perpetrating a holocaust in Gaza. "We believe that...

During February 2018, three lectures were delivered at the Muslim Center of Middlesex County in Piscataway, NJ, under the title "Al Quds: The Palestine Lecture Series." Sayel Kayed, president of the NJ Chapter of the American Muslims for Palestine, spoke on February 2, expressing...

In recent weeks, there have been reports of an initiative launched by social activists in the Gaza Strip, in collaboration with Hamas and the Palestinian factions, for Palestinian refugees in all areas bordering on Israel, to march en masse towards the border, erect there "Return...

Introduction
In late November 2015, the
"Upcoming Syria" movement was established in Istanbul. This is the
first 'Alawi movement that opposes the Bashar Al-Assad regime in Syria. The
movement's founders claim that for years, Assad tied the fate of the 'Alawi
sect with his own in...

By: Mansour Al-Hadj*
The following report is a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
In March 2013, Al-Raqqa became the first major Syrian city to be completely liberated from the A...

Introduction
According to the IAEA report released January 16, 2016, Iran has implemented its commitments under the JCPOA. This means that Iran has not refrained from meeting its obligations, despite Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's nine preconditions, which he set out in...

Introduction
On January 29, 2016, some two
years after the failure of the Geneva II conference, another round of indirect talks
will take place in Geneva between the Assad regime and the Syrian opposition,
in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 2254, which outlined a
...

Introduction
On
May 20, 2015, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declassified
numerous documents found at Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan,
and published them on a specially designated website.[1] The release garnered
widespread media attentio...

Introduction
For over two years, the regime of
Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad has been implementing a policy of siege and
starvation in areas of Syria where it encountered harsh resistance by armed
opposition forces. But the main victim of this policy has been the unarmed
civi...

On January 19, 2016, the Islamic State (ISIS) and its supporters on Twitter launched a social media campaign urging Muslims living in North Africa countries, specially Tunisia, Morocco, Mali, Algeria, Libya and Mauritania, as well as members of groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda, ...

By: M. Khayat*
Introduction
Ansar Alkhelafa Europe (AKE), an online jihadi forum that publishes Islamic State (ISIS) content, is a reincarnation of the Ansar Al-Mujahideen English Forum (AMEF), which for years was a top jihadi forum that catered to Eng...

Introduction
At
a press conference on December 15, 2015 at 3:00 a.m., Saudi Defense Minister and
Deputy Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman announced the establishment of the Islamic
Military Alliance to Fight Terrorism, which includes 35 Arab and Muslim
countries. He said that the...

WARNING: EXTREMELY GRAPHIC CONTENT
By: Steven Stalinsky, R. Sosnow, and M. Khayat*
"[With regard to] the slaughter of that American [Nicholas Berg] under the slogan 'Allah Akhbar': You know, in schools today... six- and seven-year-old children are shown how to slaughter, and the ...

WARNING: EXTREMELY GRAPHIC CONTENT
"[With regard to] the slaughter of that American [Nicholas Berg] under the slogan 'Allah Akhbar': You know, in schools today... six- and seven-year-old children are shown how to slaughter, and the children have to shout 'Allah Akhbar.' There ...

In
light of the escalating tension between Saudi Arabia and Iran, as manifested by
the torching of the Saudi Embassy in Tehran and Saudi Arabia's subsequent
severing of diplomatic relations with Iran,[1]
Saudi soccer clubs have voiced apprehension about playing Iranian teams in ...

In light of recent setbacks for the Islamic State (ISIS), especially in the battles around the city of Ramadi in Iraq, supporters of the organization scrambled to rationalize the situation and encourage their fellow supporters to not be discouraged. Writing on jihadi forums and...

The following report is a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM).
Introduction
The Islamic State (ISIS) has
exerted much effort in the last couple of weeks to attacking Saudi Arabia and
its ruling and religious echelons in an e...

Introduction
The Palestinian public and
leadership widely support the ongoing violent events which PA officials have
dubbed a "popular uprising" and Hamas calls an "intifada."
The PA and
Fatah do not condemn stabbing or even shooting attacks, and its officials and
media outlets...

On
January 2, 2016, Saudi Arabia's interior ministry announced that the kingdom
had executed 47 individuals,[1]
Sunni and Shi'ite, on various charges, including carrying out terrorist
operations and inciting to terrorism; espousing takfiri ideology; attacking the
military and se...

The following report is a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
On December 30, 2015, an Operation Inherent Resolve spokesman confirmed the death of Islamic State (ISIS) operative Cha...

On December 27, 2015, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) released an audio message by one of its senior officials, Ibrahim Al-Qusi. In the audio recording Al-Qusi offered AQAP's condolences to its sister group, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), upon the death of the...

IntroductionOn
December 18, 2015, the UN Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 2254, which
included a "road map for a peace process in Syria, setting a timetable"
for talks between the parties. This resolution, which stemmed from a Russian
initiative, granted de-facto le...

The following report is a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
On December 26, 2015, Al-Furqan, the official media wing of the Islamic State (ISIS), released a new audio message in w...

The communique of the 70 ISIS members
Recently, 70 members of the Islamic State's (ISIS) branch in Yemen, including both officials, commanders and common fighters, announced that they were renouncing ISIS's "governor" in Yemen. An ISIS official hastened t...

Introduction
With the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors' closure, on December 15, 2015, of
Iran's PMD (Possible Military Dimensions) dossier, the JCPOA is now back on track
for the implementation that began on Adoption Day, October 18, 2015.
...

In the current wave of Palestinian violence, young Palestinian women have been visible on the frontlines of protests and of violent clashes with security forces, and have also been carrying out knife attacks. Their participation cuts across social sectors: they have been seen wea...

In the current wave of Palestinian violence, young Palestinian women have been visible on the frontlines of protests and of violent clashes with security forces, and have also been carrying out knife attacks. Their participation cuts across social sectors: they have been seen wea...

Introduction
In the last six months, the Ibn Taymiyyah Media Center (ITMC), identified with the Salafi-jihadi stream in the Gaza Strip, has been conducting an online campaign called "Jahezona" ("Equip Us") to raise funds for the Salafi jihad organizations in Gaza. The camp...

Introduction
An issue that concerns Jordanian society lately
is the phenomenon of young Jordanians joining the terrorist organizations that
are fighting in Syria and Iraq, especially the Islamic State (ISIS). In
October, it was reported that the son of Jordanian MP Mazen Al-Dhal...

Introduction
On December 12, 2015, Saudi
Arabia will, for the third time, hold municipal elections; for the first time,
women will participate in the elections as both voters and candidates, within the
confines of shari'a law, in accordance with a decision by the previous king, ...

Introduction
In advance of the February 2016
elections in Iran for both the Majlis and the Assembly of Experts, and in light
of Hashemi Rafsanjani's November 25, 2015 announcement that he will run for the
Assembly of Experts, the power struggle between the pragmatic camp, which ...

Introduction
On November 24, Turkish aircraft
shot down a Russian SU-24 fighter jet over its violation of Turkish airspace for
17 seconds, at its southern border with Syria, causing the death of one of the
pilots and of a marine from the Russian helicopter that came to the dow...

Introduction
On December 2, 2015, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) secretary-general Yukiya Amano released his report on the Possible Military Dimensions (PMD) of Iran's nuclear program.[1]
The report's findings, whatever they turned out to be, were not supposed t...

Introduction
The 2000s witnessed the escalation
of Sunni-Shi'ite tensions in the Middle East, with virulent rhetoric fomenting
on both sides of the sectarian divide. The anti-Shi'ite campaign has clearly
been the more pervasive and acrimonious. The first decade of the 21st centu...

Introduction
The Islamic State (ISIS) invests considerable efforts in demonstrating that it provides proper services to the people living under its rule. Media material is released on a daily basis to show that ISIS repairs and maintains infrastructures, build roads, maintain...

By: Mansour Al-Hadj*
The following report is a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
Introduction
In June 2014, the Islamic State (ISIS) announced the establishment of the Cali...

The following is the executive summary of Prof. Ella Landau-Tasseron's paper. The full paper is available here.
On September 19, 2014, a group of 126 Muslim scholars addressed an open letter to the ruler of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. In it they severely criticize ISIS' po...

A central leader of Jamaatud Dawa (JuD), which functions as the charity arm of the Pakistani jihadist organization Lashkar-e-Taiba, has accused Christians and Jews of promoting the "evil" of ISIS in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Maulana Amir Hamza, a key leader of Jamaatud Dawa,...

On October 26, 2015, Hashemi Rafsanjani, the head of Iran's Expediency Council and the political rival of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, gave a comprehensive interview to the website "Iranians' Nuclear Hope."[1] In the interview, he says that, during the Iran-Iraq war, Iran...

The following report is a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
In the past year, the Islamic State (ISIS) has published six issues[1] of its official French-language magazin...

The following report is a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
Responding to the November 13, 2015 Paris attacks, several clerics who are affiliated with the Islamic State (ISIS), ju...

Introduction
Since
the ouster of Muhammad Mursi in July 2013, Saudi-Egyptian relations have been
close and marked by common interests. Saudi Arabia backed the Egyptian
military's ousting of Mursi and supported its claim that the ouster expressed
the will of the people, in the fa...

The following report is a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.IntroductionIt is hard to gauge the full reality of life in the Islamic State. The dominant narrative, presented by ISIS, is...

This report, offered as a complimentary sample from MEMRI's
Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM), reviews the activity of the Islamic State's (ISIS)
Sinai Province. It discusses the importance of Sinai to ISIS; the increase in terror
activity in the peninsula since t...

IntroductionGoing against the Turkish national
will, as it was reflected on June 7, 2015 in the results of the country's general
elections, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and
Development Party (AKP), who did not achieve the win they sought in the
elections...

IntroductionIn late September 2015, prior to
his departure for New York to attend the UN General Assembly, Iraqi Prime
Minister Haider Al-'Abadi announced the establishment of a joint intelligence
center in Baghdad for Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Russia. The intelligence center,
he sa...

The following report is a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
Introduction
In the last few weeks, a number
of jihadis and terrorist organizations have announced that they are opening
thei...

On October 25, 2015, a group of five pro-ISIS online activists who have claimed responsibility for many cyber attacks launched an incitement campaign on Twitter and Telegram with the hashtag "France under Hacks".
Graphics distributed on Twitter under the hashtag "France un...

Introduction
Russia's increasing military involvement in Syria, which constitutes another lifeline for the Bashar Al-Assad regime, is of great concern to Saudi Arabia, which together with Turkey and Qatar is leading the battle against this regime. However, Saudi Arabia is taki...

On October 21, 2015, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei published a letter of guidelines to Iranian President Hassan Rohani on the execution of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The letter's publication coincides with the days of the Ashura that are of vital religi...

On October 22, 2015, the media office of the Islamic State (ISIS) in Kirkuk released a statement claiming that an operation headed by U.S. forces failed to rescue Peshmerga prisoners. According to the statement, military aircrafts including Chinook and Apache helicopters too...

The following report is a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
Introduction
In recent days, several Islamic State (ISIS) media organs have released a series of videos aimed a...

Introduction
Since the Arab Spring of 2011, Turkey's foreign policy has been focused on Syria and on the ousting of its 'Alawite President Bashar Assad, who Turkey hoped would be replaced by a like-minded Sunni ruler from the Muslim Brotherhood. During the 13 years of its rule, T...

Like the first and second intifadas, the current wave of terrorism is being exploited by Palestinian organizations and leaders, including by Palestinian President Mahmoud 'Abbas, who attack Israel and accuse it of terror and crimes while making false claims and allegations....

On October 14, 2015 the Islamic State's (ISIS) information bureau in Ninawa province posted pictures of the graduation ceremony from the course that trained the first special forces graduating class. In the pictures that were posted on the jihadist forum Sh...

On October 13, 2015 the Iranian Majlis approved, by a majority of 161-59 with 13 abstentions, not the JCPOA but rather an Iranian amended version it.
Paragraph 3 of the Majlis decision states that "the government will monitor any non-performance by the other party [to the agreem...

According to recently published reports, for example a report by Ibrahim Al-Amin, board chairman of the pro-Hizbullah Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar, in the past four months Iran has held intensive contacts with Russia to coordinate the parameters of Russia's intervention in Syria.[1] ...

The following report is a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
Introduction
The "media points" of the Islamic State (ISIS) are cyber information booths in cities and towns across all areas co...

Introduction
One serious result of the war that has been raging in Syria for over four years is the exploitation of underage girls, including being married off by their families. While such marriages were taking place in Syria before the war - in 2010, the Syrian parliament had e...

Fighters critical of Russia's recent intervention in Syria have taken to Twitter to offer bounties for captured Russian soldiers.
On September 30, Ibn Nabih, a self-described, freelance reporter and translator on jihadi affairs, shared the tweets of a rebel fighter and a shei...

Introduction
During the fierce election campaign prior to Turkey's June 7, 2015 general election, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who under the Turkish constitution is sworn to impartiality, violated that oath by holding daily campaign rallies for the ruling AK Party (AKP), in ad...

On September 30, 2015, ISIS in 'Aden/Abyan released a video showing clashes with Houthi fighters, public execution of captives, the distribution of flyers to motorists, and the destruction of a security prison. The video, which was posted on leading ISIS-affiliated jihadi fo...

The following report is a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
Introduction
In response to the refugee crisis involving the migration to Europe of hundreds of thousands of people from Sy...

The following report is a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here. In an article in Dainik Jagran, the largest Hindi-language daily in India, MEMRI South Asia Studies Project D...

Introduction
Iraqi politician and Shi'ite religious scholar Ayad Jamal Al-Din has emerged as a leading liberal voice in Arab media and politics, following the ousting of Saddam Hussein and his Baath regime. He espouses the separation of religion and state, advocates adherence to ...

Introduction
American administration spokesmen have explained the nuclear agreement with Iran as both leveraging the opportunity created by the election of a pragmatic Iranian president, Hassan Rohani in June 2013, and as vital because the sanctions have not set back Iran's nucle...

Introduction
In the past three weeks, there have been numerous media reports in the non-Arabic media stating that Russia, the Syria regime's main ally alongside Iran, has decided to step up its military involvement in Syria and participate in fighting alongside the forces of the...

The following report is a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here. Issue 11 of Dabiq, ISIS's English-language magazine released on September 9, 2015, contains two pages ded...

The following report is a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here. Issue 11 of Dabiq, ISIS's English-language magazine released on September 9, 2015, contains two pages ded...

According to an Urdu-language daily, the United Arab Emirates has arrested 11 Indian nationals for trying to join the Islamic State (ISIS). The UAE officials also detained and deported two youths from India's southern Kerala state for trying to join ISIS. India's Kera...

A 37-minute video produced by the Islamic State's affiliate in Sinai, titled "Harvest of Armies," reviews the organization's military attacks on the Egyptian army and security forces in the peninsula, as filmed by the organization itself, with emphasis on the g...

A 37-minute video produced by the Islamic State's affiliate in Sinai, titled "Harvest of Armies," reviews the organization's military attacks on the Egyptian army and security forces in the peninsula, as filmed by the organization itself, with emphasis on the g...

Following a string of jihadi attacks in Kabul and elsewhere in Afghanistan during August 2015, several Afghan government leaders have accused the Pakistani military's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of carrying out these attacks via the Taliban. As the U.S. and internati...

In a Friday sermon delivered at the Masjid Al Furqaan in Cape Town, South Africa, Sheikh Riyaad Fataar said that the Al-Aqsa Mosque was "slipping from the hands of the Islamic nation... because the plans of the Jews are moving [ahead]." Quoting Saladin and saying that Muslims "ar...

French-Tunisian lawyer Majid Bouden, President of L'Association des avocats en droit international et étranger, said that terrorism was the outcome of political Islam. "The entire world has separated religion from state and politics, except for a group of Muslims," he said, addin...

The ISIS-affiliated group Jaysh Khalid Bin Al-Walid, which is active in the Yarmouk Basin in southern Syria, released an Arabic-language video featuring a boys' school operating in one of the villages in the area under its control. The footage shows members of the group's hisbah ...

On International Women's Day, held on March 10, Russia Today broadcast a TV report on the celebrations held by Russian women living in Gaza. The footage showed ballet performances by children trained by Russian teachers. Hala Al-Zabda, Director-General of the Ministry of Women's ...

Following U.K. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson's accusations that President Putin was responsible for the poisoning of Russian ex-spy Skripal, Russian politician Evgeniy Tarlo accused the West of trying to influence Russian elections, and said: "Intellectual degenerates and moral...

In a TV interview, Jordanian sociologist Muhammad Ayasrah said that "Judaism has been a hateful and racist religion throughout history" and that "the Jews are known to be the racists, or even the founders of racism in the world." Ayasrah, who was presented by Prime TV as the "Dir...

Iranian-American Shiite Imam Abolfazl Bahram Nahidian, the imam of the Manassas Mosque in Virginia, said during a 2010 Quds Day rally in Washington D.C., that Israel "created September 11" and blew up the buildings in order to "create hatred" for the Muslims and to justify the oc...

Jordanian TV host Dr. Bakr Al-Abadi said that in 1967, "the Zionist entity gathered all the rats carrying the Bubonic plague in Norway" and released them in Egypt, where they harm crops and children. He also said that they smuggled "chemical fertilizers and rotten seeds" into Egy...

Former Indian Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Mani Shankar Aiyar spoke at the Fourth Global Convention of Solidarity with Palestine on March 13, where he praised India-Palestine solidarity and called: "Long live the Intifada! Long live the resistance! The martyrs are immort...

On March 21, 2018, Al-Qaeda released a new video of a speech from its leader, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, in which he seeks to rally the Muslim world to focus on what he views as the No. 1 enemy of the Muslims – the U.S. In the 17-minute speech, released by Al-Qaeda's Al-Sahab media compa...

During February 2018, three lectures were delivered at the Muslim Center of Middlesex County in Piscataway, NJ, under the title "Al Quds: The Palestine Lecture Series." Sayel Kayed, President of the NJ Chapter of the American Muslims for Palestine, spoke on February 2, expressing...

Egyptian historian Bassam El Shammaa, interviewed by the official Palestinian Authority TV channel, repeated his claims of a post-WWII "counter Holocaust" carried out by Jews against the Germans, in which "60,000 to 80,000 Germans were killed... and 2-3 million Germans were perse...

Iranian MP Javad Karimi-Ghadousi, a member of the parliamentary National Security and Foreign Affairs Committee, revealed details of a budgetary dispute among top Iranian officials, in which President Hassan Rouhani had opposed transferring money to the Islamic Revolutionary Guar...

Tunisian academic Nader Hamami said that the Muslim tradition of jurisprudence wants to prevent free, responsible, and individual thinking, which are the cornerstones of modern thought. "We live in the 21st century, with a pre-Copernican mentality, a mentality that precedes moder...

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said in a March 19 speech in Ramallah that Hamas was behind the March 13 assassination attempt in Gaza against Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah and Intelligence Chief Majed Faraj. Abbas revealed details of the Fatah-Hamas talks. He quoted Hamas le...

A report on a tunnel-digging unit of Hamas' military wing, the 'Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades, aired on March 17 on the Lebanese Al-Quds TV. Reporter Hanady Nasrallah visited one of the tunnels and the militants digging it and said that "resistance courses like blood through thei...

On March 18, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad visited soldiers in the city of East Ghouta, which has suffered massive aerial bombardments in recent weeks. In the first part of the video, which was published by the Syrian News Agency, the Syrian president is seen personally drivin...

On March 13, Shiite Lebanese cleric Muhammad Ali Al-Husseini called upon the State of Lebanon to revoke the citizenship of Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, saying that the latter's "slips of the tongue," when he reportedly said that the Rule of the Jurisprudent was a...

In a Friday sermon delivered on July 18, 2014 at the Islamic Education Center of Houston, Texas, Pakistani-born Shiite Imam Ghulam Hurr Shabbiri said that "one of the worst Hitlers in this world is Netanyahu" and that Israel was perpetrating a holocaust in Gaza. "We believe that ...

Lebanese cleric Sheikh Muhammad Abu Al-Qat' delivered a Friday sermon in which he claimed that "all the wars and strife around the world are planned by the Jews," as well as "all the corruption suffered by humanity." Sheikh Abu Al-Qat' also said that "all the films about crime, k...

During his February 2 Friday sermon at the North Hudson Islamic Educational Center in New Jersey, Imam Mohamed Moussa, President of the Tri-State Imams Council, called on preachers and Islamic teachers to be mindful of what they say in sermons and schools and to avoid anything th...

Following the poisoning of Russian spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, TV host Cyril Kleymenov cautioned against choosing a professional career as a "traitor," and warned Russians not to take up residence in England, because in recent years, there have been too many cases of people ...

Deputy Secretary-General of Hizbullah Sheikh Naim Qassem spoke at the Fourth Global Convention of Solidarity with Palestine on March 13, saying that the only way to regain Palestine was through resistance and "first and foremost, armed resistance." He further declared: "We want v...

Shiite Iraqi scholar Jawad Al-Khoei, co-founder of the Iraqi Council for Interfaith Dialogue, said that ISIS is deeply rooted in Islam and that "when [violence] dons the cloak of religion, it is a hundred times more evil." He said that whether violence will remain in the region "...

Hassan Rahimpour Azghadi of the Iranian Supreme Council for Cultural Revolution said in a lecture that aired on IRIB Ofogh TV on March 2 that the West was trying to prevent Iraq from becoming the leader of the Arab world. According to Azhgadi, Egypt has become a very poor country...

Iraqi TV host Anwar Al-Hamadani went on record as saying "that it is our duty to apologize to our Iraqi Jewish compatriots for the tragedy that befell them" during the 1941 Farhoud massacre of Jews in Baghdad and "to rectify that historic error," which he compared to the tragedie...

Algerian MP Naima Salhi, Secretary-General of the Parti de l'équité et de la proclamation, warned of a "hellish plan to create a second Zionist entity - a so-called 'Israeli state ' in the Maghreb," and to restore the Jews from Arab countries to their countries of origin. "B...

In the framework of its campaign against Facebook, Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV published a promo on Twitter and Telegram to protest what it said were the social media networking company's "violations against Palestinian content," including removal of inciting web pages and accounts. Accord...

In a Friday sermon delivered at the Muslim American Society of Charlotte, North Carolina, Imam John Yahya Ederer said that the story of the creation of Israel was not often told in America, " because of the billions of dollars, and under-the-table bank and financial and economic ...

Former top PA Security Chief Mohammed Dahlan said in a recent TV interview: "I have never seen a government – no matter how corrupt, extreme, right-wing, failing, and fascist – punishing its own people like what we are seeing in Gaza today." Calling the political situation "catas...

During a protest in Gaza against Facebook's removal of Palestinian accounts and pages, organized by the Journalist Support Committee, Tawfiq Al-Sayyid Salim, Head of the Palestinian Media Assembly, said that the "targeting of Palestinian content by Facebook" was "no less dangerou...

In a Friday sermon delivered at the Women's Mosque of America, activist Sumaya Abubaker of the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the University of Southern California talked about sexual abuse in the Muslim community – sometimes perpetrated by imams and Quran teachers – an...

The first round of the Russian presidential debates, held on February 28 with the participation of all candidates with the exception of President Vladimir Putin, turned into a shouting match, with candidate Vladimir Zhirinovski, the leader of the LDPR, insulting some of his adver...

Liberal Kuwaiti activist Nasser Dashti gave an interview on Sky News Arabia, in which he said that "when religion is presented as an ideological platform, it is more dangerous than a nuclear weapon." Dashti, a member of the Tanweer Center for Culture, said that in order to make p...

In a Friday sermon delivered in El Bagour, Egypt, Dr. Abu Bakr Al-Qadi called to wage Jihad against the infidels in their own lands. Stressing that he was not talking only about defensive Jihad, he said: "I am talking about seeking out the infidels on their own turf," and, if the...

On March 4, 2018, the Islamic State (ISIS) media distributed a video with the title "The Attack of the Brave on the U.S. Army: Tongo Tongo Battle." The nine-minute video shows footage of an ambush that occurred on October 4, 2017, in Niger, and cost the lives of four U.S. Special...

UAE business magnate Khalaf Al-Habtoor said that he believed Israelis should be allowed to participate in sports events in the Arab world. "Let them play. We in the Arab world want to have peace with Israel in the future," he said. In a video uploaded to his Twitter account on Ma...

Ambulance driver and paramedic Mohammad Alaa Aljaleel built a shelter for cats and other animals in Aleppo, at one point caring for 170 animals. After being evacuated from the heavily shelled city, taking a few of the cats with him, Aljaleel rebuilt his cat sanctuary in the count...

Mohammad Hashem, an atheist, was invited to the Alhadath Alyoum TV studio to participate in a debate with former Deputy Sheikh of Al-Azhar Mahmoud Ashour. However, his statement that there is no scientific evidence for the existence of God and his attempt to talk about the Big Ba...

Al-Manar TV reported on a new 3D computer game launched by Hizbullah called "Holy Defense," aimed at "simulating the heroic acts of the mujahideen of the Islamic resistance against the takfiri movement in Lebanon and Syria. Jawwad, a boy whose father was "martyred," told the TV r...

When asked on a Lebanese MTV show which historical leader impressed him, Syrian actor Owiss Mokhallati at first declined to say, but then relented and said: "It's Hitler." Following the audience's applause and laughter, he added: "Regardless of the violence he employed, Hitler wa...

Egyptian Professor of Israeli Studies Abd Al-Razzaq Suleiman said that Israeli and American research centers were targeting the Egyptians, and that “all the negative practices,” such as atheism, drugs, and single motherhood were premeditated. He said that in a study emerging from...

Calling Israel a "plundering occupier," Jordanian Senator Sakher Dudin said that the nation could "have no greater enemy than the Zionist entity," but that "the average age of the Palestinian grandparent is 40 years" and "this ticking Palestinian demographic bomb will eventually ...

Local teachers at a music school in Astrahan sang a song glorifying Russian President Vladimir Putin at a birthday party for one of the teachers. The song, written in 2014 by local composer poet Tatiana Klenkova, contains lyrics such as: "Putin – he never gives up," "we are invin...

Saudi cleric Abd Al-Aziz Fawzan Al-Fawzan said that even though a Muslim might possess "some of the despicable and nasty traits of the Jews," one must not taunt or curse them for this. Describing these traits, Al-Fawzan said that the Jews are "the most envious of people and the m...

Palestinian activist Mahmoud Nawajaa, the general coordinator of the BDS Movement, said that although it was unlikely that the Nobel Prize, which is "notorious for having been awarded to war criminals," would be granted to the BDS movement, such a win would "balance out the scale...

Former Egyptian presidential candidate Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, founder of the Strong Egypt Party, called to cancel his country's upcoming presidential elections, charging that anybody who donates money to opposition parties is detained on charges of terrorism or money launderi...

President of Cairo University Mohamed Al-Khosht called for a "completely new religious discourse," saying that "reformed discourse" was not enough and calling the notion of reform in Islamic thought "like renovating an old and crumbling building." All the attempts at reform, from...

In 2014, Sheikh Abu Abdillah Ismaeel delivered a Friday sermon in Queens, N.Y., in which he said that "Satan slowly but surely is getting at the Muslims, trying to get our religion to change... - either to become extreme bloodthirsty murderers... or to become fags." Ismaeel said:...

Haitham Al-Maleh, Head of the legal department of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces, said in a recent TV interview that the 9/11 terror attack had nothing to do with Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda and that it was carried out "by the Israeli Mossad and the...

On February 16, Egyptian-born Imam Ahmed Shehata delivered a Friday sermon at the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Fairfax County, Virginia, in which he criticized the Arab community in the U.S. for racism toward the Muslim African-American community. "If not for them, America wou...

Saudi journalist Mohamed Al-Suhaimi said that he was in favor of silencing the microphones in the mosques, saying that the "terrifying" sound of the adhan call to prayer "coming from all directions" bothers people in prayer, scares children, and causes anxiety. "The group of peop...

Russian MP Tamara Pletneva of the Communist Party said, when interviewed in a street poll about the upcoming presidential elections, that although she would vote, "there are no real elections, only falsifications." Pletneva, who has been a member of Duma since 1993 and currently ...

Iranian Expediency Council Secretary-General Mohsen Rezai said that "if Israel takes even the smallest step [against Iran], we will annihilate Tel Aviv and raze it to the ground." In a February 21 interview on Al-Manar TV, Rezai, who is former IRGC commander, said: "If they ever ...

French-Tunisian Imam Hassen Chalghoumi spoke out against political Islam, saying that takfir (accusing others of heresy) "is a part of the Islamic nation and the Arab world" and that ISIS emerged "from our own countries, from among our sons." Chalghoumi, who is the imam of the Dr...

Sheikh of Al-Azhar Ahmed Al-Tayeb in a recent TV interview said that "a most devious and malicious plot was hatched to plunge this dagger [i.e., Israel] into the body of the Arab world." Sheikh Al-Tayeb said that we have recently "had to swallow a dose of poison" manifest in Arab...

On February 15, the Islamic State in Al-Barakah Province released a video warning its fighters not to flee the battlefield and stressing the severe punishments that Allah has prepared for deserters in the hereafter. In the video, titled "And Remind [Them] 4" and posted on multipl...

Speaking at the Islamic Center of Cleveland, Ohio, Egyptian-American imam Islam Hassan defended the Prophet Muhammad's marriage to 'Aisha, mentioning various Christian personalities, from St. Augustine to the kings of England, who, he claimed, had taken child brides, and saying t...

Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised speech on February 16 that "if the Lebanese Higher Defense Council makes an official decision that some gas and oil rigs in the Palestinian sea – a sea plundered by Israel, the enemy entity – must not operate, I p...

IRGC Quds Force Commander General Qasem Soleimani, in an address marking the 10th anniversary of the death of Hizbullah commander Imad Mughniyah, said that his blood and the blood of other martyrs would not be avenged by the firing of one missile or the killing of one person. "Th...

In a TV interview, Kuwaiti singer Shams Bandar said that she supported sex education in the Arab world and that she had gay friends, criticizing those who convey one message to the cameras and another behind closed doors. Lying, she said, "is characteristic of the Arab peoples" b...

Imam Ahmad Al-Rawashdeh delivered a Friday sermon at the Old Tila' Al-Ali Mosque in Amman, Jordan, in which he said that "as long as they are dispersed, it is impossible to annihilate the Jews," but that Allah "informed us that He would gather the Jews in one place, so that they ...

Lebanese Defense Minister Yacoub Sarraf said, with regard to terrorism carried out in Europe: "I reject the notion that we should hold ourselves responsible for an erroneous, misleading idea, or that we should hold ourselves responsible for people who follow this path," objecting...

Iranian analyst Mohammad Sadeq Al-Hosseini said that the Jews "were sent to us under the title of the Holocaust" and that "they established the Jewish state in agreement with Hitler," but that now they were "preparing themselves" to move to Germany. "They have bought 800,000 apar...

Al-Mayadeen TV broadcast a report on the Gaza attack tunnels dug by the Al-Mujahideen Brigades, the military arm of the Palestinian Mujahideen Movement, a group that splintered from Fatah. Abu Aziz, a militant in the brigades' missile unit, told the reporter, who toured one of th...

IRGC Quds Force Commander Qasem Soleimani compared Arab countries with ties to America to "beggars, running after some tiny rich countries." Speaking in the city of Kerman on the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, General Soleimani said that the U.S. had done nothing for Iran...

Jordanian Senator Talal Abu-Gazaleh said, in a BBC Arabic TV interview, that the Arab Spring was not a movement for democracy. "What happened is that [the region entered] the 'Dark Ages' stage," he said, reminding the viewers of the Dark Ages of Europe. Abu-Gazaleh said that whil...

In a Friday sermon delivered in Columbia, South Carolina, Egyptian-American cleric Muhammad Syed Adly warned his congregation against sending their children to non-Muslim schools. Imam Adly said that gay or lesbian teachers might pass it on to their students. "The behavior, the w...

Palestinian girl "poet" Rouaa Al-Tamimi, age 7, appeared on the Ramallah-based Ajyal Radio show on February 7, where she recited a poem about a mother who gives her son a rifle as a reward for finishing his meal. The mother in the poem says: "Jerusalem is ours, Islam is our weapo...

Egyptian author Sayyid Al-Qemany criticized the Egyptian regime's calls for reform in the religious discourse, saying that they were directed abroad and were not intended for internal consumption. Religion "still constitutes the main source for the thinking of the regular citizen...

Egyptian TV Host Gaber Al-Karmoty marked the occasion of the downing of the Israeli fighter jet by the Syrian army by bringing a box of chocolates to the TV studio. "Israel was, remains, and forever will be the No. 1 enemy of Egypt and the Arab world," he decl...

In an Al-Jazeera TV interview on February 10, Russian political analyst and former diplomat Viacheslav Matuzov said: "I believe that Russia gave the Syrian army the green light (to down the Israeli F-16)." While in the past, Russia encouraged Syria to "avoid opening a second fron...